A Larger Firehouse, But Somewhere Else

Our Towns

Enfield

November 23, 1994

The Enfield Fire District Commission should abandon plans to expand a 40-year-old station in a historic district on Enfield Street. They should look instead for land in one of the town's nearby industrial areas and put a new, larger firehouse there.

The district's Enfield Street building is old, cramped and inadequate. The fire company there needs more room to house new equipment and a bigger staff than it had when the station was built in 1954. Three times, the Historic District Commission has rejected plans for the project as incompatible with the area. Commission members are right to be wary.

The plan included renovating a Greek revival house constructed in the mid-1800s and adding a large garage for firetrucks behind it. A corridor, with room for offices, would link the house to the fire station. The firehouse itself would be enlarged, with bigger front doors, though they would be camouflaged to look about the present size. To their credit, designers of the plan said they tried to make the changes blend with the old surroundings. The results are attractive but still out of place on this particular street.

The fire company's location is a good one for the district. The building is close to I-91 and heavily populated areas. But available land exists close by that would be just about as convenient and could serve the district better.

Constructing a new station would cost about the same as renovating the old one.

Locating in an industrial area with room to grow would be an investment that could last well into the next century -- and it would pose no intrusion to structures from earlier ones. The commission should take the latest rejection as final word on attempts to expand on Enfield Street.